Jan 01, 2025, 07:12 PM Last Edit: Jan 05, 2025, 01:39 AM by Trollheart
Yes, it's time for me to move on to another artist who will occupy me for a whole month. This band has been suggested by Norg, so I'll see how I go on them. I know very little of Korn, other than that they're a nu-metal band and probably not to my tastes. I don't promise to stay the course as I did with The Fall, but I will try to listen to at least four albums before giving it up, if I do. Should that happen, don't bug me: if something does not click with me I am certainly not going to waste a month trying to get into it. This isn't meant, as I said in the other thread, to be torture, but an opportunity to get to know an artist I might otherwise not bother with. There's an even chance I may not like that artist any more by the end than I did before I started, but if I find they're growing on me as I go along I will stick with it, otherwise I'll move on.

I see Korn have 14 albums and 6 EPs, so if I can I will try to do all in order. I'd appreciate you dropping by, @Norg if you can, as SGR did when I tackled The Fall: I'd prefer not to be just going through this without input from the member who suggested it. If nothing else, participation, even encouragement or helpful information will show me that you didn't just choose this band and then fuck off and leave me to it. If I get that impression, and if nothing here sticks, then I may very well abandon it, so please, pop by and monitor your choice and see how I'm doing.

Obviously, anyone else is welcome to call by too (looking at you, @Lexi Darling ! Remember your promise! Please? :shycouch:) as I attempt to get to grips with another artist with whom I am about as familiar as I am with the rules of baseball.

Wish me luck! Back later with the first review.



Although I consider myself a metalhead )plays havoc with the metal detectors at airports!), most of you will know that I have very little regard for the subgenre of nu-metal. Slipknot, Limp Bizkit, Bring Me the Horizon, System of a Down... you can quite happily keep them all. I want nothing to do with them. So why am I setting out on a Kornventure? Well, because, I guess, Norg hates me, and in addition I'm an idiot, leaving myself open to, in fact, setting myself up for, this kind of torture.

But maybe it won't be that bad. Maybe I'll have a Fall-like experience, and realise that not all nu-metal bands growl and grunt and have about as much to do with melody and music as I do with, say, neo-Nazi rallies. Maybe that glaring light coming down the tunnel towards me at an alarming rate is not a train, but you know, just to be on the safe side, I'm going to stand back.

Here it comes...


Title: Korn
Medium: Album
Year: 1994
General opinion: Hmm. Although they called the album "A smashing success", the LA Times noted that the music had "no sensible measure of its artistic merit" and also said that "as the album goes on, Korn's blasting and hammering becomes more head-on, the results less distinctive." Kerrang! said the singer's "voice overflows with cracked, frustrated emotion, often lapsing into uncontrollable screams like a mental ward". He described how Korn have "injected their own special insanity into the music, crafting a horribly sleazy sound that matches their bleak outlook on life". Another reviewer pronounced it "an almost dadaist record – little or no melody, structures cut out in spite of common sense, guitars deliberately out of tune – with, to top it all off, a hysterical vocalist playing the bagpipes" and said Korn was "a group of crazies". Allmusic were kinder, calling the album  "a powerful sound and one that actually builds on the funk-metal innovations of the late '80s/early '90s instead of merely replicating them" while Metal Hammer thought  "this is a record that remains as integral to modern metal as the first Black Sabbath album or Metallica's Master of Puppets." Perhaps the most positive comment is from Joel McIver in his book Nu-Metal - The Next Generation of Rock and Punk when he claimed that this album created nu-matal and "was almost solely responsible for the tidal wave of change that subsequently swept the metal scene."
Trollheart Gets His Korn On: None of that does anything to quiet the fears bubbling up inside of me, and I feel that it will be quite a miracle if I can understand, never mind enjoy this album, but, as we say here, let's give it a lash. Perhaps not the most well-chosen of words to use. I shudder to see there is a 17-minute track closing the album (though I'm told it's really only (!) 9 minutes), and I do remember being amazed at Slipknot's epic "Iowa", which was like a cool shower after having been bathed in fire for what seemed like an hour. I doubt I'd be that lucky. Anyway, riot shield in place, visor down, CS gas ready: in I go!

I must say, it's a very disturbing album cover, now that I've read about it and my attention has been drawn to how creepy and downright violent it can be seen to be, but then, I suppose art is art, and you can't assign any darker motive to the artist than that he wanted to create a memorable cover that perhaps reflected the contents. Speaking of which: taps on cymbals, deceptively quiet, are joined by a ragged guitar and slow bass, which then drops out, another guitar joining the first as "Blind" kicks things off, a growly vocal surprisingly intelligible, and the music equally surprisingly melodic. Perhaps they're lulling me into a false sense of security before bringing the hammer down, but so far this is not at all bad.

I get real atmosphere from this track, and while I'm sure Norg won't thank me for the comparison, the singer, Jonathan Davis, sounds to me like Daughtry, which just once again goes to show I don't know what the hell I'm talking about. All I can say though is that this didn't roll over me and flatten me as I had expected it to, and "Ball Tongue", though it explodes with sharp guitar riffs all over the place, doesn't quite sound like it's out hunting for my head to add to its collection either. Yes, the vocal gets fast and hard to understand at times, but most of the time it's easy enough to make out what's being sung. Other than the rapid vocal, the track itself, like the opener, is relatively slow-paced and you can certainly hear the expertise of the musicians. "Need To" has a great driving guitar almost like a drill cutting through the melody (and yes, there is one, to my surprise) and a very ominous feel to it. You can really hear the frustration in the vocal. Cool.

"Clown" opens with some sort of rehearsal, the guys talking and exchanging insults before the song begins and the guitar certainly powers through this. I assume Korn don't use keyboards, do they? No. No they don't, so guitar is going to be the dominant instrument here, though I do see they use (shudder) bagpipes on one track! Not looking forward to that! Still, so far this has not been at all unpleasant. You'd have to say it's another slow track, no mad shredding or real screeching or anything, stomping along with purpose. That said, "Divine" is probably the first time the tempo really goes up, Davis certainly outdoing himself with the rapid vocal. It's also the shortest track on the album, just shy of three minutes, and leads into the second-longest at almost six minutes as "Faget" (surely a respelling of that word? Yes I see it is) allows Davis to get back at his high school bullies, who assumed he was gay due to the clothes he wore and the music he listened to. It's quite a heartfelt song, somewhat lyrically similar to Robbie Williams' "Dear Sir" hidden track on his Escapology album. There: never thought you'd hear the words Robbie Williams mentioned in the same breath as Korn, did ya? Hey, it's who I am, it's what I do. Man, you can really hear the anger and the frustration here: I'm told Davis cried real tears during the vocal, and I can believe it. Must have been a very hard song to write and sing.

"Shoots and Ladders" is that dreaded track with the bagpipes, but I have to say that so far I haven't had a problem with anything on the album, and I've quite enjoyed most of it. But who doesn't hate bagpipes? I mean, what is the point of them? Ah Jaysus you know what? That's pretty good. I thought he was going to "metal them up", but no, he played them really well and it's actually quite moving. It's absolutely hilarious to hear him sing "Nick Nack Paddy-Wack" against an angry guitar and I think he's also singing "Mary Had a Little Lamb". Fucking funny. Great bass line opening "Predictable" then it has a kind of Nirvana style to it in some ways, while "Fake" has a very emotional vocal against a sort of ringing guitar and really rocks along, and things get a bit odd for "Lies", where there are roars and a sort of sound of wind or snow maybe, with the vocal seeming distant, some great riffs on the guitar.

That leaves us with just two, "Helmet in the Bush" starts with what sounds like a Mexican on the phone, for some reason, then smashes in on punchy guitar in an almost swinging style, another guitar kind of howling, then the closer is that 17-minuter, well, 9-minuter, "Daddy", which rather surprisingly (lots of surprises on this album) opens with an a capella vocal, almost a chant or hymn, before the bass takes the tune, and it slouches along disconsolately, Davis's vocal dark and moody, the song another slow one. It rises in anger and power for what I guess would be the chorus, then lapses back into the slower, more drawled style, little riffs on the guitar almost sounding querulous, like a child asking for an explanation as David roars "Tell me why?" Very impressive. Intensely personal, David dissolving into shouting abuse and then just crying as the band play on. Really really disturbing. Changed my mind about Korn, I can tell you that.

Really quite surprised by how good this was. I did not expect this. Hopefully the rest of the albums are as good, or better.

Rating: 8/10

Trollheart vs Korn
Trollheart: 0
Korn: 1
Current score: Trollheart 0 - 1 Korn




Title:  Life is Peachy
Medium: Album
Year: 1997
General opinion: Positive, it seems. Allmusic said "Korn add enough elements of alternative rock song structure to make the music accessible to the masses, and their songwriting has continued to improve." Kerrang! rated the album four out of five stars and said Davis' vocals were "filled with rage and hatred and bile", their opinion that what "makes the band" is the "bare emotion" in his voice. They highlighted the darkness and heaviness of the music, which occasionally showcased a "weird funky vibe". Guitarist enthused that "Life Is Peachy shows no let-up in the psychotic style, and is safely tipped to establish Korn as the new standard" in metal and Metal Hammer said "so noisy and heavy that it is impossible to pose to" and stated, "Korn sound like nothing that has preceded them". That bastion of music journalism, um, Entertainment Weekly snarked that he album was a "primal scream" and left the "impression that frontman Jonathan Davis is turning his well-publicized childhood traumas into a cheap marketing device". They gave it a C− and said that it "may be of interest to mental-health professionals" while The A.V. Club smirked that the album was  "nothing but plain old, ham-fisted, butt-stupid heavy metal". Nice one guys! Harvard paid off, huh? ::)
Trollheart Gets His Korn On: It opens somewhat like a Slipknot album maybe, with what is I think backwards taping of Davis just growling and the word "twist", all of which lasts about fifty seconds before we begin the album proper with "Chi", which starts out with a powerful guitar punch and then sort of slips back down into a more low-key vocal transposed with a faster, more ragged one (same guy? Yeah), the anger and frustration still very evident in Jonathan Davis's voice, still powerful and emotional. "Lost" is a lot slower and dramatic, with sort of honking guitars and crashing drums before Davis's voice comes through very clearly, again alternating between soft low-key and frantic scream, then there's a sense of lazy blues in "Swallow", though it certainly explodes with angry energy in the chorus, and "Porno Creep" opens on some sort of mad feedback then runs along a sultry bass line with attendant guitar, the vocal, like the music (for now) very restrained and almost hard to make out.

Actually, it turned out to be a short song, just over two minutes, and never exploded as I had expected it would. Even the next one, "Good God" keeps it fairly modest, a more impassioned vocal but other than that nothing too wild. Some of those guitar licks remind me of Big Country. Yeah. There's a whispered opening to "Mr. Rogers", which may have something to do with the children's TV show, but I'm not American so it means little to me. Yeah, apparently Davis didn't like him. Nice choppy guitar riff behind it and a pretty raw vocal too. For a song so titled, "Kunts" is not the powerhouse, crazy, hammerpunch I had expected. It certainly has a lot of fucking expletives, that's for sure, but without them it's just a powerful metal song I guess. I still tend to hear a lot of Nirvana in some of these songs, not that I'd know much about it, but it does seem to come through strongly in the bass running through "No Place to Hide", with a fairly frenetic vocal performance at times from Davis. I like that he doesn't just growl or grunt or scream, but alternates between that and "proper" singing, which he can quite clearly accomplish. The guitars here sound like car horns honking at times.

I'm told "Wicked" is a cover of an Ice Cube song, but I can't comment. It certainly has more of a hip-hop sound than most of the rest of the album, so I guess this is where Korn begin the crossover between the genres, though there's plenty of room for frantic, snarled vocals too. "A.D.I.D.A.S" (All Day I Dream About Sex) has nothing to do with the sports brand, though it seems they did end up working with them. It has snarly guitars which later turn into possible sitars? A pretty basic idea given the Korn treatment which works very well, while "Lowrider" features the return of the bagpipes, with some basic guitar riffs and percussion behind the vocal, a short one, less than a minute, which leaves us with two to go.

"Ass Itch" appears to be their version of writer's block, and jams along on hard sharp-edged guitars counterpointing Davis's frustrated screeches and roars, then the closer, "Kill You", gives him the chance to rant about someone he hated when younger, who made his life miserable, and whom he dreamed about killing. It opens on a nice introspective guitar, with a kind of crooned vocal from Davis, then bursts into a tortured roar with guitars pounding and shrieking behind him before returning to the single guitar riff with which it began, devolving down into a descending chord as Davis whispers the ending, groaning and crying.

Overall, I enjoyed this second album but I do prefer the first. Maybe it was the "reverse shock value" of the self-titled debut, the fact that I had expected to hate it and did not, that makes this not quite so effective, or maybe it's the slight change in style, bringing in the hip-hop motifs. But I definitely prefer the debut. That said, still a great album.

Rating: 7/10

Trollheart vs Korn
Trollheart: 0
Korn: 2
Current score: Trollheart 0 - 2 Korn




Title: Follow the Leader
Medium: Album
Year: 1997
General opinion: Allmusic thought the album was  "an effective follow-up to [Korn's] first two alt-metal landmarks." Rolling Stone though that Korn  "have an ideal record for those long, black days when all you can do is say 'What the Fuck! What the Fuck! What the Fuck!' at bloody murder volume" while {Yahoo[/i] (Yahoo?) called it "intensely tortured and savage as ever", Entertainment Weekly stuck their snobby nose in again where it wasn't wanted, giggling that the album was   "a big load of dumb fun" and "also incredibly perverse, going to almost laughable lengths to mess with metal cliché". The New York Times saw Davis as  "wrestling with self-hatred, violent impulses, parental execration, and a confused sexual identity..." but Robert Christgau was not impressed, sniffing that Korn "deny they're metal", they "nevertheless demonstrate that the essence of metal ... is self-obliterating volume and self-aggrandizing display."
Trollheart Gets His Korn On: A strange spacey sound like a synth (Korn don't use them though, do they?) and a very slow drum beat opens "It's On!" which grinds with a heavy, downtuned guitar and Davis's vocal again alternating from softer, clean style to manic aggressive roar. The melody seems to continue on into "Freak on a Leash", with screeching guitar and measured percussion, sort of phased vocal and a punchy chorus, and features some scat singing which makes Davis sound like the Cookie Monster eating cookies. Tempo rises for "Got the Life", seems to be a fair bit of reverb or feedback or some damn thing here, though I can see why this album is Korn's most commercially successful and accessible; the music is much more mainstream, in terms of Korn, than anything I've heard up to now. It even topped the Billboard charts! That's something indeed.

Even as I said that, "Dead Bodies Everywhere" is the densest, most aggressive of the tracks so far, with screaming, growling, grinding guitars and Davis at his most in-your-face, then the hip-hop influences come through very strongly in "Children of the Korn", featuring Ice Cube, whose song they covered on the previous album. The kind of thing, perhaps, bands like Bodycount would do later, "B.B.K." has screaming, stuttery guitars against Davis's tortured vocal, "Pretty" is a slow, moody, ominous grinder, "All in the Family" features Fred Durst, which is a minus for me - don't like Limp Bizkit, what a surprise - so I don't pay too much attention to that, but "Reclaim My Place" gets things moving in the right direction again  with fuzzy riffs, powerful drum beats and a triumphant vocal from Davis. Great powerful mad ending with him shouting "What the fuck?" against a bubbling bass line and pounding guitars. What the fuck indeed?

Must be a talk box opening "Justin", crushing guitar riffs driving the song against Davis's howls of anguish, a lot of echo or reverb near the end, then at almost six minutes, "Seed" is the second-longest track, with a creeping, disturbing menace in the melody before it blasts out on more power riffs, very catchy chorus. Sounds again like sitars or something as "Cameltosis" gets going, and again we're in the hip-hop hood as a former member of the Pharcyde, Tre Hardson, guests, and it seems Korn make a habit of ending their albums on songs that run into double digits, but that, well, don't quite. "My Gift to You" is shown as running for over 15 minutes but in fact only goes for just past seven, with one of those annoying "hidden tracks", um, hidden along the running time. It's a slow, powerful, emotional piece that for me recalls the best of doom metal and mixes in a bit of black metal for good measure.

I have to admit, at this stage I'm debating continuing this. The first album was quite a revelation, and this is good, but as their "breakthrough" commercial album, I don't see it as all that different from the last one. I also feel that if the person who recommended this band to me can't be bothered to drop in, and in fact makes somewhat snarky comments as to how I misunderstood his suggestion, it makes me feel somewhat like banging my head against the wall while nobody watches. I honestly can't say I'm really enjoying these albums, so if that's the case why would I continue? At least I had SGR with me for my trip through Fallland. Here, I just feel I'm being left to do it alone, and to be completely honest, I'm not sure it's something I want to do. It's also getting harder to find things to write about music I really don't have that much interest in. Perhaps I just never will be a fan of these guys, or of nu-metal in general.                               

Rating: 7/10

Trollheart vs Korn
Trollheart: 0
Korn: 3
Current score: Trollheart 0 - 3 Korn



@Trollheart Don't worry my friend, I'm here to save the day. Give me a bit to gather my thoughts and I should be able to be your guide on the long and KoRny road.

I'm sorry you've been experiencing snark, that's not cool at all. I'll do my best to provide insight and hopefully help you enjoy this more!

"stressed" is just "desserts" spelled backwards

Thanks Lexi! That diatribe was not directed at you, but Norgwards.
I'm unsure though if I want to continue on the pathway to Korndom: there are so many other ways I could be wasting my time...



Quote from: Trollheart on Jan 03, 2025, 06:21 PMThanks Lexi! That diatribe was not directed at you, but Norgwards.
I'm unsure though if I want to continue on the pathway to Korndom: there are so many other ways I could be wasting my time...


Gotcha. I'll still post my thoughts in a bit and should you choose to continue I will be happy to be your wingwoman.

"stressed" is just "desserts" spelled backwards

Yeah, I can't see this going anywhere. I don't actually not like the band, as such, I just find it very hard to write about them. And if I've learned anything in my years on Music Banter (and I haven't) it's that there is no point pursuing a project you no longer care for or have any interest in just to be bloody-minded and see it through to the bitter end. Nobody thanks you, nobody cares, and in the end, it matters to nobody. Life is tough enough as it is without adding in tasks I don't want to perform, and I have plenty of other threads - and my long-neglected journals - I'd rather put my energies into. So - where are the keys? Oh now WHO had the keys last? I KNOW I gave them to - no, it was definitely - they won't be there - no they won't - I checked! Oh all right but they're not going to be... ah.

Well, anyway, this thread is now



You've just heard probably over 50% of their best stuff in the progress you did make on the thread anyways (the next one, Issues, is one I'd also throw in that mix). Beyond that, they have some good singles, but not many other exemplary or memorable records imo.


Yeah I got that impression when it said Follow the Leader was their most commercially successful album, and I didn't even like that all that much. Like I said though, it wasn't so much that I hated or even disliked it; it's just really hard to write about the music, since it seems generally to be variations on a few standard themes for nu-metal: loud roars alternating with softer, emotional singing, hard banging guitars, nuclear drumming and the odd bit of softer guitar. You run out of things to write about and it becomes a chore, and not very interesting. I need to get back to my journals anyway.


How have you never heard of korn ...??? How old are u ????

There the most over analyzed n covered band in the last 30+ years from A to Z since they came out ...in text fourm and video

There members have been going before the internet when there was magazine radio tapes n vinyls lol

That's why I find it quite amazing and odd u never heard a snippet cus korn has been covered on the same level has like metallic sabbath nirvana and the Beatles...maybe even more

That's why I said u should devat from the norm and do there solo stuff

Imo korn has alot of good songs and moments







I mean if u gonna review korn no words needed review like this dude lol




Quote from: Norg on Jan 05, 2025, 08:18 AMI mean if u gonna review korn no words needed review like this dude lol


You're not an unruly Philly Eagles fan like this guy is, are you @Norg ?